Getting Trump wrong again

If CNBC wants Truth Social to fail, have Jim Cramer recommend its stock

The media had a lot of fun this week misinforming the public about President Donald John Trump’s fortune. CNBC, which bills itself as a business news channel, seemed genuinely happy that the share price of Trump’s publicly traded company fell.

CNBC told online readers, “The share price of Trump Media closed trading 21.47% lower on Monday, hours after the social media app company tied to former President Donald Trump reported a net loss of $58.2 million on revenue of just $4.1 million in 2023.

“Trump Media & Technology Group shares plunged by more than 25% around 1:08 p.m. ET before recovering slightly later in the day.

“Trump Media’s closing price was $48.66 per share, more than $30 lower than its high of $79.38 per share, which it hit last week on the heels of becoming publicly traded.

“Despite Monday’s steep drop, the company’s market capitalization was still nearly $6.6 billion.

“But as of Monday’s closing price, Trump’s shares in Trump Media were worth about $3.8 billion, or around $2.5 billion less than they were last week.”

Oh, such a failure, right? He’s down to his last $3.8 billion. Brother, can you spare a million?

(Actually, he has a few billion more tucked away in his other investments and his resort empire.)

His Truth Social stock is worth only $3.8 billion.

Earlier, on March 22, CNBC reported, “Shareholders in Digital World Acquisition Corp. voted Friday to approve a merger with Donald Trump’s social media company, a deal that could net the former president an eventual windfall of $3 billion or more.”

$3 billion.

So CNBC once again is misleading the public about Donald Trump. I remind my readers that CNBC is the home to Jim Cramer who picks stocks on his Mad Money show. There is evidence that by taking his advice, you can become a millionaire using this one little trick: start with a billion dollars to invest.

Seeking Alpha came up with the Inverse Jim Cramer Strategy.

SA said, “We have built a trading strategy that is by design inversing most of Cramer's top-mentioned stock recommendations, which so far has proved successful in generating alpha on the market.”

When E.F. Cramer speaks, people listen.

And suppress their laughter as they do the exact opposite of what he recommends.

The story posted the performances of his top picks in a one-year period ending in August 2022 (when the article ran), starting with Procter & Gamble (down 10%), Disney (down 29%), Qualcomm (down 29%), Constellation Brands (down 4%), Morgan Stanley (down 17%) and so on down the line. And I really mean down.

In reporting that 21% drop in the share price of Trump’s company, CNBC failed to report something CNN did: “Shares of Trump Media tumbled 21% Monday following the new filings, though they are still up nearly 200% so far this year.”

This reminds me of the time I owned the Cleveland Indians. Well, 20 shares. On May 20, 1998, the Jacobs Brothers, who actually owned the team, offered 4,000,000 shares at $14.50 per share.

A lifelong fan and a cheapskate, I bided my time and waited for share prices to drop. I paid half the initial public offering price and tripled my investment when the Jacobs family sold the team and paid us $22.50 per share. For a few bucks, I got a framed certificate showing that I indeed once owned the Indians.

This softens the blow for the many times I have Jim Cramered.

The late night hosts were dumb enough to mock Trump with the woman who is filling in for Jon Stewart on The Daily Show saying, “Yeah, Trump, you lost a billion dollars yesterday. Now you’re only worth $6 billion, you broke bitch.”

She was not being ironic. She may have been living in her car last week before she got the call-up from Comedy Central.

Political blogs did a better-than-Jim Cramer job on the story.

The New York Times actually did some good reporting. After noting the stock price drop, NYT said, “Still, shares of Trump Media were higher than they were immediately before the firm merged with a public shell company on Tuesday and began trading on the Nasdaq. Strong support for the merged company after it began trading pushed its market value as high as $10 billion at one point last week.”

But Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post can always be counted on getting the story wrong, especially when the story involves President Trump.

The Bezos Post said, “Trump Media stock plunges as 2023 Truth Social loss put at $58 million.”

Six months ago, the Guardian reported that the Bezos Post laid off 10% of its staff amid a loss of about $100 million last year.

Nevertheless, the Bezos Post reported, “The new financial figures throw into stark relief the gap between Trump Media’s highly hyped investor-driven valuation on the public stock market and the reality of its business performance.”

But I am thankful for this tidbit in the Bezos Post story: “Trump, who invested no money in Trump Media, was given 78 million shares of the company last week and stands to earn tens of millions more over the next three years if the stock stays above $12 to $17 per share, a filing shows.”

The stock closed at $51.60 a share on Tuesday.